Warrior's Apprentice Unseen Motives
by Habato
Summary: Halt, Will, and Horace find themselves thrown into the Clans. Having to learn how to be cats, while trying to anticipate and prepare for an unknown enemy isn't a simple task. Do you think our Araluens can adjust to life in the Clans? Rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

NOTE: This is after the fourth book, before whatever comes after that. So Will is an apprentice still. Also, REVIEW AND RATE! I have out friend Crowley with us for motivation and inspiration!

Crowley: Hello!

Me: See? Crowley, would you?

Crowley: Sure. Habato doesn't own Warriors or Ranger's apprentice.

_-~~~~~~~~~~Prelude~~~~~~~~~~-_

Will chased the blur of green and brown that was his mentor through the trees. Heavier footfalls followed them, and Will knew it was Horace, desperately trying to match the hard run through thick forest achieved by the Rangers. For a couple minutes, they thought they had lost their pursuers.

And then they heard the horses. The beasts' loud footfalls carried to them, causing the party on foot to increase their already fast pace. If they just kept going straight, the riders would eventually catch them.

"This way!" Halt told them calmly as he brushed through thick bushes on the left of the path. Anything was better than continuing and being outran. But the riders were closer than he knew.

"Over here! I see them!" Someone close behind them was shouting to his backup, waiting for them.

Halt cursed under his breath and turned to look. It was like the pool and the tripping rock sprang from the ground, fully formed. The next thing Halt knew, there was a splash, a push from behind as the apprentices ran into him. Something hit his head, hard, and the ensuing darkness swallowed him.

_-~~~~~~~~~~Jayfeather~~~~~~~~~~-_

Vengeful red eyes bore down on him in the darkness. He turned to run, but was met with another wall of beady brown eyes. Again, he turned to flee, this time meeting large white teeth growled and gleamed, pushing him back. The forth and last exit was cut off as well when a cat hidden in shadows appeared, maliciously grinning. They were almost on him when a voice spoke from the stars.

"_Strong Evils have united_

_Determined to destroy everything by the lake._

_Unless The Three face the threat,_

_With the trio of Oak Leaf Warriors."_

Yellowfang's voice echoed once and Jayfeather woke again to blackness.


	2. Chapter 2

_-~~~~~Halt~~~~~-_

There was a ripple on the water near the shore. A splash later and Halt was gulping air into his aching lungs. The waves seemed to push his exhausted body to the rocky shore, but he didn't get up just yet.

Another ripple, splash, and who he thought was Will popped up from the water and gasped for air. His eyes were closed, but he heard and smelled Will being pushed up next to him by the waves. He smelled less of the forest and more of the fishy lake water, but that might have been Halt as well. Still he didn't open his eyes, remembering what had happened and unsure how he had gotten on the shore of a lake or body of water.

_ Well, let's see where we are._

He opened his eyes and paused in moving. It was not Will next to him, but a cat. It was smallish, with light brown fur covered in patches and spots of other shades of brown. There was a splash of silver fur on its chest, and when he looked closer, he realized it was an oak leaf.

"Will?" He murmured, and then stopped. He had meowed that. Halt tried to sit up, but when he looked at himself, he saw he was also a cat. He was larger than Will, naturally, but salt-and-pepper black. Similar to his apprentice, spots of black and grey covered his pelt, and he realized then they would act like their Ranger's cloaks at a distance. He looked at his paws in some curiosity, but then realized that the sun was going down. No time to play around.

Halt rolled onto his stomach and slowly stood, stretching. He then noticed an oak leaf on his chest too, but gold. Well, at least it was a distinguishing feature to remember. He pawed at Will, feeling childish. Why couldn't he be human and nudge him with his boot?

"Will! Wake up. We need to get moving, find some shelter. The sun's going down and I don't want to be in the open in new land at night."

Will moaned and opened his eyes. The young cat's eyes went from drowsy to shock at he saw Halt. Then he noticed his own physical change.

"Halt? What happened? Where are we? Y-you're…We're cats!"

Halt rolled his eyes and stood up, walking to the forest. "Yes, and you're still can't keep your mouth shut. Now, come on or I'll leave you here."

Halt was bluffing thoroughly; he would never leave Will alone in territory he didn't know without weapons when they were humans, let alone cats. But Will didn't realize that, and quickly hopped up and dashed after him.

"I have no idea what happened after we went out, but it seems we're by a big lake. A swamp is on the other side, and there's a bit of empty land to our left. Good thing though, there's a nice forest all right here. Let's try there first." Will nodded and followed as they headed into the thick undergrowth.

A few minutes passed were they just walked through the undergrowth, sometimes having to shoulder through nettle patches and ripping some fur off in the process. It seemed like they would be able to find shelter in peace, until a group of cats materialized from the foliage around them.

Halt had sensed them following since they got in the trees, and watching since he woke up, but said nothing as one cat stepped forward. Will hadn't noticed anything, so he took a step back and Halt saw the fur on his back start to stand. He hesitantly touched him on the shoulder, giving him a confident look to calm him down.

"What are you doing in ThunderClan territory? And on the lake border, no less." The large dark brown tabby tom stopped, opening his mouth to catch their scent. "But other than your water sodden fur, you don't smell like RiverClan, so who are you? Rouges? Loners?"

Halt frowned, thinking for a moment. All of the cats looked larger and looked more muscular than them. He had no idea how strong they were in these bodies, and if they could even fight. He would have to ask about these different clans in a moment, but first it was wise to be reasonable. "I am Halt. This is my friend Will. We didn't mean to intrude we just-"

Just then the wind shifted, and some odd smell was blown into his mouth. "What-"

"FOX!" Will yowled, pushing Halt forward as a scarlet beast burst from the bushes. Halt was thrown away and the patrol backed up from the deadly beast. Halt shook his head, standing to face the creature…

…that had Will's neck in its mouth.

Everything slowed down for Halt. He saw bits and pieces of the picture, his brain trying to comprehend it. Will's stunned, steadily tiring eyes. The steady _'drip, drip, drip_' of his blood flowing from where the fox's teeth punctured his skin. The snarling creature, triumph shining in its eyes and it held the small cat up. Halt didn't even notice the ThunderClan patrol backing away from the fox more, snarling and preparing to pounce.

"Will."

There was more emotion in the word than could be explained. Halt's emotion of shock sprang forward to what it wanted first. Rage. So pure, that when he growled, everyone stopped for a moment, even the fox. He was exuding such hostile waves of emotion that the patrol didn't know who to avoid more: the fox or this small thin rouge.

The fox had been confused for a moment when the smallest cat had been the most defiant. Now, it just wanted to slash at them and run off with his prize, starved as it was. It never even got a chance.

Halt had jumped foreword, moving so fast he was almost a blur to the cats. He nipped and slashed and beat at the fox, drawing blood and hitting in furious rage. This animal had the nerve to attack his apprentice, to try to kill them this far from home. It had the nerve challenge _him._

Will, just conscious in the jaws of the fox, could only see a black blur stabbing the fox, drawing blood nearly every time. In his dazed state, he thought Halt was shooting arrows at the fox, and wondered where the shafts were. Why did it take so many arrows to kill a simple fox? He watched a moment more, and then let the pressing darkness cover him.

Halt was frightening. A living ball of teeth and claws and muscle. No other cat tried to get in his way, and the fox had started to wine and back up. Finally, the rage was too much for nips and cuts. Halt stopped at the fox' back left leg, planted his claws in the earth, and crunched down on the leg with a sickening _snap_.

That did it. The fox yowled in pain, dropping the blood and water sodden ball of brown fur. It ran away, wining and limping, desperate to get away from the small deadly cat.

Halt didn't even notice the stares and meows of amazement. The minute Will touched the ground, he was at his side, meowing and whispering to him. He didn't notice the blood covering his paws and muzzle because there was so much more around Will.

"Will! Will, are you okay? Say something! We'll be back home soon. We'll find Horace, and be right back in Redmount. Will! Don't you dare go out on me!"


	3. Annoying AN of Apology

**An: Okay….so. I now realise 2 things. 1- GOD LORD, I've improved so much from when I wrote this! O.o and 2- people really like this, and I remember writing this and would LIKE to continue it…if I could remember the plot of it. T_T I WILL continue it, just it might have a slightly different plot, and probably won't upload as fast as Reset(if ur not reading that, my Doctor Who/Danny phantom cross w/ 10 and Clockwork(not slash)) but probably faster than VPwC(Which I've been told started to feel like Warriors with the feline 'clan'), at least for now, since…well, Vlad's apparently now wanting me to continue that one atm…^^;**

**It probably won't be for a little while (I'd love to re-read book 4 of RA and catch up on warriors before continuing), but I will continue this.**

**Also, I'm REALLY sorry that this is just an Author's Note. I hate when authors do this too, but there's really no better way.**

**Also, ugh, I dunno how else to sya sorry, and you can't even IMAGINE how ANNOYING it is to read this, and remember bits of it, and then NOT BE ABLE TO REMEMEBR THE REST OF MY IDEAS. THE WHOLE PLOT. POOF.**

***le sigh* OH. BLOODY. WELL. It probably wasn't that great anyway, I've improved more than I realized in a year. I'm going to set up a poll. The more people who vote for this, the fast I will try to set up and upload another chapter to apologize and get back on track, cuz I honestly can't really remember where I was going with this. Oh well. ANYWAY, really sorry.**


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